Welcome to our Farm! Little stories about our life as organic farmers raising a family on an island in the middle of Lake Champlain

Monday, September 21, 2009

CSA Journal Week 16

****BLUE HERON FARM HOE-DOWN***THIS WEEKEND – SUNDAY, September 28 starting at 3:00pmPlease bring a dish to share, your own plate (we have glasses), an instrumentHay wagon rides starting at 3:30 (the route of hay ride will be down where the sheep are)Potluck Music Starting at 4:30 – Potluck Dinner starting at 5:00pmPlease park down at the red and green barn – walk to the back field – the path through the cedars– see the sheep and wigwam and lots of fields for the kids to run in. See you Sunday!

What’s happening on the farm this week?Week 16: Hi everyone – A big thank you to Gene, Kaight’s (CSA member) father who has done an amazing job brush hogging around the farm. There are fields that we do not use during the year and in the fall they need to mowed down and cleared. Gene has spent over 16 hours mowing for us and we are so very lucky and thankful for all of his hard work. Adam is back at his off the farm job full time, and Sadie and I can not use the tractor together so to have someone here that knows how to use a tractor and do some of the long hour jobs – is such a great help! We are thankful also to Kaight and her family for sharing their grandpa with us. We are learning so much from him. Gene comes from a long line of farmers from the Chester, VT area and we learn more every time we are working along side him.

Next week will be the last pick up for the season for on farm, Bebop, Fort and Round Barn. We will try to load you up with as much stuff as we can. The farmstand will remain open until it snows – and you can buy eggs, jars of goodies, wool, garlic, potatoes, etc.

We have winter squash for everyone for the last two weeks of this share. We hope you enjoy them. We brought them in from Rockville Market Farm in Starksboro. Thanks to Keenan and her son for bring them to S. Burlington for us yesterday. We also have corn stalks for anyone who would like to decorate their porches with them. I will try to bring them into Bebop and the Fort drop offs on Thursday. Check out this week/last week’s Seven Days – Sadie and Christine are on the back page of Section A for advertising the Healthy Living Farmers Market. Sadie and Christine went and sold at two markets back to back this weekend, Grand Isle and Healthy Living – with a lot of prep help from Adam. We sold potatoes, garlic, eggs, cookies and cornstalks.

Sadie is pretty pooped today – lots of on time – she is napping right now (11:20am on Monday) I figured her and I would stick close to home today since the last few days have been hectic. This is made possible by the hard work of Adam, and our great volunteers, Gale, Fiona, Ben, Ronnie, Becky and Dude on this Monday morning and work down over the weekend. We made 18 pints of pear sauce on Saturday, working on some tomato sauce this afternoon and it looks like our apple trees are asking us to pick them to make some apple sauce, butter, crisp and pies. We have been enjoying picking raspberries with our neighbors Jim and Meg – Sadie is quite a scout for raspberries – she knows exactly when the berries are ready and picks them so gingerly and then gobbles them up. She also likes to run down the beds shouting “where are you mama” in a sing song voice- “where are you Jim” “Where are you Meg” “Where are you chickens” “Where are you daddy” Sadie and I start out with baskets – one Sadie size and one mama size – she starts filling hers and then realizes – yum – and eats them up and then she goes for mama’s – I have to ration them out so we have some to eat later and freeze. Sadie must eat at least 2 quarts worth of raspberries when she is out there (good thing Jim and Meg don’t weigh herJ).

I love going out my front door, walking across the “yard” and be able to pick berries – actually I am very grateful for where I live because we can get all of our food (well almost all of it) right here on Quaker Rd and if not here we know other farmers who can grow it for us. What an amazing place to be for us and especially our daughter – all the wonderful grandmotherly and grandfatherly friends we have for her, the food that can be raised by us and our neighbors that she can eat, the fields that she can run through to get a banana out of someone’s cookie jarJ, to swing in the big tree in circles, to sit with the sheep, to race the chickens and to sleep looking out at the stars – and to count each and every one. We are blessed.

Thanks for being part of our farm, see you next week – Adam, Christine and Sadie J

BLUE HERON FARM HOE-DOWN –September 27, 2009The next Blue Heron Farm Hoe-Down will be Sunday, September 27th at 3:00pm – potluck, music, games and hay rides on a now fixed hay wagon. The last hoe down brought fiddles, harmonicas, guitars, bag pipes, accordion, and many silly dances on the hay wagon by all these little farm kiddos. The weather should be a lot cooler and we will have a bon fire this time. We are planning on having it back behind our property near the sheepJ Bring family and friends, food and drink to share, an instrument – all are welcome.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED:To help put the veggie part of the farm to bed – please call us 372-3420 or email harmonyvt@yahoo.com. Thanks

Grass fed Beef Shares Now Available:

Blue Heron Farm and Rob Rousseau, farmer in North Hero, have partnered again this year to offer grass fed beef shares this year. Rob has been farming all of his life and his grass fed beef are delicious. We have been getting a share from him the last 3 years and have not bought beef from the store in over 3 years. The cows are able to range on over 150 acres of pasture at his family farm. They are on pasture their whole life. He does not use antibiotics or growth hormones. He does not feed them grain to “fatten” them up. The beef has a sweet taste to it – you can tell they have been on pasture. These cows have had great lives. They are Hereford crossed with Angus and maybe some Highland (I have to double check with RobJ). The beef will be ready over the next couple of months. He had 6 cows to sell – which means 12 halves. He sells it by hanging weight. The price will include processing and putting the cuts of beef in frozen, freezer paper wrapped,1-2 lb packages. You will receive hamburg, stew beef, tenderloin, sirloin, top round, ribs, cube steak, soup bones, london broil, roasts, etc. The price is 2.75 per lb hanging weight. This price may go down – it is dependant an the cost of processing. This is the best deal around for grass fed beef. I have learned a lot about beef processing over the last few years and have asked lots of questions – so here is some info you should know. Hanging weight is the weight that is taken when the beef is hanging after it has been gutted, skin, hooves and head are removed – sorry for the graphic but it important for you to know. The beef needs to hang in the meat cooler for a few weeks and when this happens, there is shrinkage. There is typically about 15- 20% shrinkage from the hanging weight depending on the fat of the cow. So the hanging weight is different from the weight you bring home. For example: last year, we processed a full cow that was 615lbs hanging weight. What we brought home was around 430-440lbs of beef (that was a whole cow). The processing house treats the animals humanely and is USDA inspected and it even has an organic processor license. You can see the cows grazing on Rte 2 in North Hero, South of Shore Acres.

If you are interested in a beef share, please fill out the bottom and send with a $50 deposit by October 15th. The deposit will be deducted from the final price. IF you have any questions, please feel free to call Christine at 372-3420.